Daniel Chávez Landeros | University of New Hampshire (original) (raw)

Books by Daniel Chávez Landeros

Research paper thumbnail of Fábula del Poder, Corporalidad, Biopolítica y Violencia en la Narrativa de Sergio Ramírez

Fábula del Poder, 2023

A noncommissioned officer of the Nicaraguan National Guard travels to New York to meet the famous... more A noncommissioned officer of the Nicaraguan National Guard travels to New York to meet the famous bodybuilder, Charles Atlas. When he approaches his hero, he finds a body pierced with syringes and tubes, a cyborg of fragile artificial life. In the garden of a Central American dictator’s mansion, a prisoner is locked in a cage next to a lion’s. Nature and animal instinct will take their course. In post-Sandinista Nicaragua, an amputee policeman must face—alone and wounded—a drug gang commanded by his former guerrilla leader. Despite the gravity and violence present in many of Sergio Ramírez Mercado’s short stories and novels, his writing is governed by irony and parody. Fábula del Poder proposes a novel critical assessment of the narrative work of Ramírez, who won the Cervantes Prize in 2017, emphasizing the mechanisms of representation and criticism of power in contemporary Latin American literature. In an entertaining and dynamic way, the book applies an interdisciplinary, theoretical approach, borrowing concepts from political theory, literary criticism, video games, visual culture, disability studies, and sports, and reviews the contemporary historiography of Nicaragua and Latin America.

Un suboficial de la Guardia Nacional de Nicaragua viaja a Nueva York para conocer al célebre fisicoculturista Charles Atlas. Cuando logra acercarse al héroe, encuentra un cuerpo traspasado de jeringas y mangueras, un cíborg de frágil vida artificial. En el jardín de la mansión de un dictador centroamericano, un prisionero es encerrado en la jaula contigua a la de un león. La naturaleza y el instinto animal seguirán su curso. En la Nicaragua post-sandinista, un policía amputado de una pierna debe enfrentar—solo y herido—a una banda de narcotraficantes comandada por su antiguo jefe guerrillero. A pesar de la gravedad y violencia de las historias contadas en muchos de los cuentos y las novelas de Sergio Ramírez Mercado, su obra está regida por la ironía y la parodia. Fábula del Poder propone una novedosa valoración crítica de la obra narrativa de Ramírez, quien recibió el Premio Cervantes en 2017, haciendo énfasis en los mecanismos de representación y crítica del poder en la literatura contemporánea de América Latina. De manera amena y dinámica el libro utiliza un marco teórico interdisciplinario y aplica conceptos de teoría política, crítica literaria, videojuegos, estudios de la discapacidad, cultura visual y deportiva, y repasa la historiografía contemporánea de Nicaragua y América Latina.

Research paper thumbnail of Nicaragua and the Politics of Utopia, Development and Culture in the Modern State

Nicaragua and the Politics of Utopia, 2015

The history of modern Nicaragua is populated with leaders promising a new and better day. Inevita... more The history of modern Nicaragua is populated with leaders promising a new and better day. Inevitably, as Nicaragua and the Politics of Utopia demonstrates, reality casts a shadow and the community must look to the next leader. As an impoverished state, second only to Haiti in the Americas, Nicaragua has been the scene of cyclical attempts and failures at modern development. Author Daniel Chavez investigates the cultural and ideological bases of what he identifies as the three decisive movements of social reinvention in Nicaragua: the regimes of the Somoza family of much of the early to mid-twentieth century; the governments of the Sandinista party; and the present-day struggle to adapt to the global market economy.
For each era, Chavez reveals the ways Nicaraguan popular culture adapted and interpreted the new political order, shaping, critiquing, or amplifying the regime's message of stability and prosperity for the people. These tactics of interpretation, otherwise known as meaning-making, became all-important for the Nicaraguan people, as they opposed the autocracy of Somocismo, or complemented the Sandinistas, or struggled to find their place in the Neoliberal era. In every case, Chavez shows the reflective nature of cultural production and its pursuit of utopian idealism. Vanderbilt University Press, 2015. This book was selected by "Foreign Affairs"the international studies magazine for the list "Best of Books" of 2016.

Chapters by Daniel Chávez Landeros

Research paper thumbnail of Cosmopolitan Don Juan, Mauricio Garcés and the Myth of the Modern Mexican Dandy

Immature Playboys and Predatory Tricksters: Studies in the Sources, Scope and Reach of Don Juan, 2020

Analysis of the gender, ethnicity, and class aspects of Mauricio Garcés's representation of Don J... more Analysis of the gender, ethnicity, and class aspects of Mauricio Garcés's representation of Don Juan. Garcés plays with the classic elements of Claramonte's and Zorrilla's character but his roles evince the politics and social tensions of the 1960s and 1970s in Mexico. The emphasis is on the complex and ambiguous screen masculinity created by Garcés, that transcends the strict hypermasculine tropes established by the male leads of the Mexican Golden Age of cinema.

Research paper thumbnail of Cuatro personajes y dos fantasmas en busca del nuevo siglo en "Entre Villa y una mujer desnuda" de Sabina Berman

Historia de un escenario, 40 años de teatro en español en la Universidad de Virginia, 2020

Analysis of Berman's iconic work in regards to the historic and social context alluded to in the ... more Analysis of Berman's iconic work in regards to the historic and social context alluded to in the play in which the economic and political tensions of the 1990s are represented by the characters. The allusions to Neoliberal governmental conditions, the authoritarian regime of the PRI and the hidden references to gender an class conflict are also part of the discussion.

Research paper thumbnail of Cultural Warfare II, Film Exhibition and the New Spectatorship (in Revolutionary Nicaragua)

Nicaragua and the Politics of Utopia, 2015

Chapter 6 of "Nicaragua and the Politics of Utopia" Vanderbilt UP (2015) Revision of the conditi... more Chapter 6 of "Nicaragua and the Politics of Utopia" Vanderbilt UP (2015)
Revision of the conditions for film exhibition and the new spectatorship fostered by the Sandinista government of the 1980s. Emphasis on the competing perspectives of Hollywood spectacles and the New Latin American Cinema including a detailed analysis of spectatorship for Miguel Littin's "Alsino y el Cóndor" (1982). Theoretical framework derived from Einsenstein, Gutiérrez Alea and contemporary film spectatorship theory.

Research paper thumbnail of Escribir novelas, como escribir películas. Adaptación, capital cultural y culturas de producción transnacional en el cine de Guillermo Arriaga

Miradas del Cine Actual: Transnacionalidad, Literatura y Género, 2014

Queda rigurosamente prohibida, sin autorización escrita de los autores, bajo las sanciones establ... more Queda rigurosamente prohibida, sin autorización escrita de los autores, bajo las sanciones establecidas por las leyes, la reproducción total o parcial de esta obra por cualquier medio o procedimiento, comprendidos la reprografía, el tratamiento informático, así como la distribución de ejemplares de la misma mediante alquiler o préstamo público.

Research paper thumbnail of De Faunos Hispánicos y Monstruos en Inglés, la Imaginación Orgánica en el Cine de Guillermo del Toro

Tendencias del Cine Iberoamericano en el Nuevo Milenio, 2011

Research paper thumbnail of Residencia en la imagen, Pablo Neruda en la fotografía y el cine

Pablo Neruda en el Corazón de España, 2004

Revisión de la presencia de Pablo Neruda en medios visuales, sobre todo en proyectos fotográficos... more Revisión de la presencia de Pablo Neruda en medios visuales, sobre todo en proyectos fotográficos que incluyen poemas como "Casa en la Arena". Cierra con una exploración de Neruda en la intermedialidad de las películas "Il postino" y "Ardiente paciencia"

Articles in Academic Journals by Daniel Chávez Landeros

Research paper thumbnail of La novela gráfica literaria una aproximación didáctica a Rulfo a través del aprendizaje mediante diseño

Doblele, 2023

La ensef\anza de espaf\ol como segunda lengua representa una disciplina educativa que permite imp... more La ensef\anza de espaf\ol como segunda lengua representa una disciplina educativa que permite implicar a los estudiantes en un proceso de aprendizaje a nivel cognitivo y sociocultural que va mas alla de la vision tradicional de la adquisici6n del lenguaje. En este sentido, la novela grafica es un recurso con diferentes modos de expresi6n que pueden tratarse para explorar temas literarios y guiar a los estudiantes a desarrollar sus multiliteracidades. Con este enfoque transdisciplinar, es posible aproximarse a la obra Ruffo, una vida grafica (2017) de Oscar Pantoja y Felipe Camargo e identificar tres discursos concurrentes a lo largo de las imagenes y el texto: historiografico, que explica el contexto en el que surgen las obras de Juan Rulfo; biografico, en el que se representan las etapas en la vida del autor; y literario, que representa pasajes de El llano en llamas (1953) y Pedro Paramo (1955).

Research paper thumbnail of The Fall of Virtuous Men: Mexican Film Noir, and the Crisis of Values in the Postrevolutionary State, 1950-1959

Latin American Research Review, 2023

International reconsideration of Mexican film noir is a recent phenomenon. For decades, Mexican f... more International reconsideration of Mexican film noir is a recent phenomenon. For decades, Mexican film criticism tended to dismiss the importance of this tradition and even to deny its existence, often citing the presence of melodramatic elements in would-be noir films and the lack of a crime novel tradition for screen adaptations. By comparing two Mexican films to similar American productions and examining the local political and economic conditions of the former, this article argues that Mexican film noir had its own pessimistic viewpoints, which were borrowed from journalism and the illustrated press. These viewpoints were based on existing social ailments and delivered relevant criticism of the institutions, classism, and sexual norms of the postrevolutionary Mexican state of the 1940s and 1950s.

Research paper thumbnail of Hacia un Don Juan cosmopolita, Mauricio Garcés y el mito del dandi mexicano moderno

La Nueva Literatura Hispánica, 2022

A través de una variedad de personajes inspirados en el mito clásico de Don Juan, el actor cómico... more A través de una variedad de personajes inspirados en el mito clásico
de Don Juan, el actor cómico mexicano Mauricio Garcés logra establecer una gama de representaciones masculinas que rompen con los rígidos modelos heterosexuales y nacionalistas impuestos por el discurso cinematográfico de la Época de Oro (1933-1955). La inclusión de una sexualidad ambigua que oscila entre el donjuanismo, el dandismo y la homosexualidad, la afirmación de su origen libanés, el uso humorístico de otras lenguas, una serie de referencias a la política internacional, el arte y la literatura universales y a símbolos de consumo global integrados a sus personajes, reflejan muchas de las tensiones y ansiedades que se vivieron en el México de los años 1960. Estas representaciones cómicas abrieron paso a un cuestionamiento pionero, aunque insuficiente, de los roles de género y del prejuicio homofóbico firmemente enraizado en la sociedad mexicana y el cine del medio siglo.

Research paper thumbnail of Dialéctica de la mirada y la voz, Octavio Paz: el poeta junto al fotógrafo

A Contracorriente, 2018

Approaching Paz's reflections regarding the art of photography and the poems used to accompany tw... more Approaching Paz's reflections regarding the art of photography and the poems used to accompany two books of images I analyze in what way Paz's "confidence" on the use of vision as a form of knowledge is contra-posed to his "mistrust" of language and its ultimate instrumentalization in Western Modernity.

Research paper thumbnail of Film Adaption and Transnational Cultures of Production: The Case of Guillermo Arriaga

A Contracorriente, 2017

The circulation of Latin American cinema in a transnational context has widened the options that ... more The circulation of Latin American cinema in a transnational context has widened the options that actors and directors from the region have regarding their involvement in the different aspects of film production. In order to analyze Guillermo Arriaga's transnational career as a writer of novels and screenplays I contrast his work with that of other writers and filmmakers who have participated in both the cinematic and literary fields. The fact that Arriaga has crossed the lines between writing, adapting, and directing his own works in Spanish and English leads me to review the current relationship between film and literature in general. Finally, by comparing Arriaga's novels and films, I propose that the contemporary practice of film adaptation contributes to the "flexibilization" in the roles writers, actors, and directors play in filmmaking and in the circulation of cultural capital between film and literature in the current media markets.

Research paper thumbnail of The Eagle and the Serpent on the Screen: The State as Spectacle in Mexican Cinema

Latin American Research Review, Jan 1, 2010

Recent studies of the history of Mexican cinema continue to speak of the complex relations betwee... more Recent studies of the history of Mexican cinema continue to speak of the complex relations between the state and the fi lm industry, and the most frequently analyzed aspects tend to be the same: the reach and forms of censorship, as well as the fi nancial dependence on the state. To broaden this perspective, I propose a classifi cation of cinematic discourses that represent the relations between fi lm characters and state powers. I discuss four basic modes of representation that, determined by historical and economic circumstances, refl ect and mediate the attitudes and dispositions of viewers toward the political regime. For each mode, I discuss a sequence in a paradigmatic fi lm, analyzing visual and ideological aspects in relation to the political moment at the time of the fi lm's release. Finally, I argue that, despite the resurgence of the Mexican cinema and a more critical tone in its approach to state institutions, fi ctional fi lms still rest on indirect and allegorical representations of recent events. This is due to the uncertainty of the prolonged and still-incomplete transition to institutional democracy in Mexico.

Research paper thumbnail of Cuando el Estado habla en cómic: historieta e historiografía en México

Quaderns de filologia. Estudis de comunicació, Jan 1, 2008

Research paper thumbnail of El coronel no tiene con quien jugar: representaciones latinoamericanas en la literatura y el videojuego

Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies, Jan 1, 2010

Research paper thumbnail of La alta modernidad visual y la intermedialidad de la historieta en México

Hispanic Research Journal, Jan 1, 2007

Después de una breve revisión de la literatura reciente sobre la historieta en México, el artícul... more Después de una breve revisión de la literatura reciente sobre la historieta en México, el artículo propone que a pesar de la tendencia de los críticos a considerar el medio como una forma de extensión del consumismo y la dominación ideológica, las historietas junto con el cine y la pintura mural, establecieron en México la 'alta modernidad visual'. Esta fase reciente de la cultura visual intensifica y amplía las cualidades modernas de la imagen inauguradas en el Renacimiento y facilitadas por la reproducción mecánica desde finales del siglo diecinueve. Sin embargo, los cómics (o historietas) se convierten en un ejemplo paradigmático de la portabilidad y consumo individual (y también masivo) de narrativas visuales que no había sido posible a través de la pintura, la prensa o la fotografía. Un elemento central para este nuevo paradigma es la 'intermedialidad', la posibilidad de que los medios visuales se apropien y reconfiguren imágenes de orígenes diversos. Para ilustrar el despliegue de las prácticas y modos de producción de la Alta Modernidad Visual, se estudian ejemplos de la Época de Oro del cine y de la historieta en México (1935México ( -1955 incluyendo trabajos de artistas gráficos como Zea Salas y Cervantes Bassoco, las figuras de Cantinflas, Tarzán, los murales de Diego Rivera y las películas de Emilio Fernández e Ismael Rodríguez, entre otros.

Research paper thumbnail of From Miss Cristera to the Desert Within: Towards a contemporary war of images in Mexico

Studies in Hispanic Cinemas, Apr 2012

Abstract: With the release of the films Padre Pro/Father Pro (Miguel Rico Tavera, 2007) and Desie... more Abstract: With the release of the films Padre Pro/Father Pro (Miguel Rico Tavera, 2007) and Desierto Adentro/Desert Within (Rodrigo Plá, 2008), and the debates regarding the traditional dress for the Miss Mexico beauty pageant in 2007, the representation of the Cristero Wars has surfaced in Mexican cinema and television as an indicator of the current symbolic struggles for the construction of a new national narrative.

Research paper thumbnail of Tomochic: Nationalist Narrative, Homogenizing Late Nineteenth-Century Discourse and Society in Mexico

Research paper thumbnail of Technologies of the Self and the Body in Octavio Paz's" The Works of the Poet"

Revista hispánica moderna, Jan 1, 2007

Research paper thumbnail of Fábula del Poder, Corporalidad, Biopolítica y Violencia en la Narrativa de Sergio Ramírez

Fábula del Poder, 2023

A noncommissioned officer of the Nicaraguan National Guard travels to New York to meet the famous... more A noncommissioned officer of the Nicaraguan National Guard travels to New York to meet the famous bodybuilder, Charles Atlas. When he approaches his hero, he finds a body pierced with syringes and tubes, a cyborg of fragile artificial life. In the garden of a Central American dictator’s mansion, a prisoner is locked in a cage next to a lion’s. Nature and animal instinct will take their course. In post-Sandinista Nicaragua, an amputee policeman must face—alone and wounded—a drug gang commanded by his former guerrilla leader. Despite the gravity and violence present in many of Sergio Ramírez Mercado’s short stories and novels, his writing is governed by irony and parody. Fábula del Poder proposes a novel critical assessment of the narrative work of Ramírez, who won the Cervantes Prize in 2017, emphasizing the mechanisms of representation and criticism of power in contemporary Latin American literature. In an entertaining and dynamic way, the book applies an interdisciplinary, theoretical approach, borrowing concepts from political theory, literary criticism, video games, visual culture, disability studies, and sports, and reviews the contemporary historiography of Nicaragua and Latin America.

Un suboficial de la Guardia Nacional de Nicaragua viaja a Nueva York para conocer al célebre fisicoculturista Charles Atlas. Cuando logra acercarse al héroe, encuentra un cuerpo traspasado de jeringas y mangueras, un cíborg de frágil vida artificial. En el jardín de la mansión de un dictador centroamericano, un prisionero es encerrado en la jaula contigua a la de un león. La naturaleza y el instinto animal seguirán su curso. En la Nicaragua post-sandinista, un policía amputado de una pierna debe enfrentar—solo y herido—a una banda de narcotraficantes comandada por su antiguo jefe guerrillero. A pesar de la gravedad y violencia de las historias contadas en muchos de los cuentos y las novelas de Sergio Ramírez Mercado, su obra está regida por la ironía y la parodia. Fábula del Poder propone una novedosa valoración crítica de la obra narrativa de Ramírez, quien recibió el Premio Cervantes en 2017, haciendo énfasis en los mecanismos de representación y crítica del poder en la literatura contemporánea de América Latina. De manera amena y dinámica el libro utiliza un marco teórico interdisciplinario y aplica conceptos de teoría política, crítica literaria, videojuegos, estudios de la discapacidad, cultura visual y deportiva, y repasa la historiografía contemporánea de Nicaragua y América Latina.

Research paper thumbnail of Nicaragua and the Politics of Utopia, Development and Culture in the Modern State

Nicaragua and the Politics of Utopia, 2015

The history of modern Nicaragua is populated with leaders promising a new and better day. Inevita... more The history of modern Nicaragua is populated with leaders promising a new and better day. Inevitably, as Nicaragua and the Politics of Utopia demonstrates, reality casts a shadow and the community must look to the next leader. As an impoverished state, second only to Haiti in the Americas, Nicaragua has been the scene of cyclical attempts and failures at modern development. Author Daniel Chavez investigates the cultural and ideological bases of what he identifies as the three decisive movements of social reinvention in Nicaragua: the regimes of the Somoza family of much of the early to mid-twentieth century; the governments of the Sandinista party; and the present-day struggle to adapt to the global market economy.
For each era, Chavez reveals the ways Nicaraguan popular culture adapted and interpreted the new political order, shaping, critiquing, or amplifying the regime's message of stability and prosperity for the people. These tactics of interpretation, otherwise known as meaning-making, became all-important for the Nicaraguan people, as they opposed the autocracy of Somocismo, or complemented the Sandinistas, or struggled to find their place in the Neoliberal era. In every case, Chavez shows the reflective nature of cultural production and its pursuit of utopian idealism. Vanderbilt University Press, 2015. This book was selected by "Foreign Affairs"the international studies magazine for the list "Best of Books" of 2016.

Research paper thumbnail of Cosmopolitan Don Juan, Mauricio Garcés and the Myth of the Modern Mexican Dandy

Immature Playboys and Predatory Tricksters: Studies in the Sources, Scope and Reach of Don Juan, 2020

Analysis of the gender, ethnicity, and class aspects of Mauricio Garcés's representation of Don J... more Analysis of the gender, ethnicity, and class aspects of Mauricio Garcés's representation of Don Juan. Garcés plays with the classic elements of Claramonte's and Zorrilla's character but his roles evince the politics and social tensions of the 1960s and 1970s in Mexico. The emphasis is on the complex and ambiguous screen masculinity created by Garcés, that transcends the strict hypermasculine tropes established by the male leads of the Mexican Golden Age of cinema.

Research paper thumbnail of Cuatro personajes y dos fantasmas en busca del nuevo siglo en "Entre Villa y una mujer desnuda" de Sabina Berman

Historia de un escenario, 40 años de teatro en español en la Universidad de Virginia, 2020

Analysis of Berman's iconic work in regards to the historic and social context alluded to in the ... more Analysis of Berman's iconic work in regards to the historic and social context alluded to in the play in which the economic and political tensions of the 1990s are represented by the characters. The allusions to Neoliberal governmental conditions, the authoritarian regime of the PRI and the hidden references to gender an class conflict are also part of the discussion.

Research paper thumbnail of Cultural Warfare II, Film Exhibition and the New Spectatorship (in Revolutionary Nicaragua)

Nicaragua and the Politics of Utopia, 2015

Chapter 6 of "Nicaragua and the Politics of Utopia" Vanderbilt UP (2015) Revision of the conditi... more Chapter 6 of "Nicaragua and the Politics of Utopia" Vanderbilt UP (2015)
Revision of the conditions for film exhibition and the new spectatorship fostered by the Sandinista government of the 1980s. Emphasis on the competing perspectives of Hollywood spectacles and the New Latin American Cinema including a detailed analysis of spectatorship for Miguel Littin's "Alsino y el Cóndor" (1982). Theoretical framework derived from Einsenstein, Gutiérrez Alea and contemporary film spectatorship theory.

Research paper thumbnail of Escribir novelas, como escribir películas. Adaptación, capital cultural y culturas de producción transnacional en el cine de Guillermo Arriaga

Miradas del Cine Actual: Transnacionalidad, Literatura y Género, 2014

Queda rigurosamente prohibida, sin autorización escrita de los autores, bajo las sanciones establ... more Queda rigurosamente prohibida, sin autorización escrita de los autores, bajo las sanciones establecidas por las leyes, la reproducción total o parcial de esta obra por cualquier medio o procedimiento, comprendidos la reprografía, el tratamiento informático, así como la distribución de ejemplares de la misma mediante alquiler o préstamo público.

Research paper thumbnail of De Faunos Hispánicos y Monstruos en Inglés, la Imaginación Orgánica en el Cine de Guillermo del Toro

Tendencias del Cine Iberoamericano en el Nuevo Milenio, 2011

Research paper thumbnail of Residencia en la imagen, Pablo Neruda en la fotografía y el cine

Pablo Neruda en el Corazón de España, 2004

Revisión de la presencia de Pablo Neruda en medios visuales, sobre todo en proyectos fotográficos... more Revisión de la presencia de Pablo Neruda en medios visuales, sobre todo en proyectos fotográficos que incluyen poemas como "Casa en la Arena". Cierra con una exploración de Neruda en la intermedialidad de las películas "Il postino" y "Ardiente paciencia"

Research paper thumbnail of La novela gráfica literaria una aproximación didáctica a Rulfo a través del aprendizaje mediante diseño

Doblele, 2023

La ensef\anza de espaf\ol como segunda lengua representa una disciplina educativa que permite imp... more La ensef\anza de espaf\ol como segunda lengua representa una disciplina educativa que permite implicar a los estudiantes en un proceso de aprendizaje a nivel cognitivo y sociocultural que va mas alla de la vision tradicional de la adquisici6n del lenguaje. En este sentido, la novela grafica es un recurso con diferentes modos de expresi6n que pueden tratarse para explorar temas literarios y guiar a los estudiantes a desarrollar sus multiliteracidades. Con este enfoque transdisciplinar, es posible aproximarse a la obra Ruffo, una vida grafica (2017) de Oscar Pantoja y Felipe Camargo e identificar tres discursos concurrentes a lo largo de las imagenes y el texto: historiografico, que explica el contexto en el que surgen las obras de Juan Rulfo; biografico, en el que se representan las etapas en la vida del autor; y literario, que representa pasajes de El llano en llamas (1953) y Pedro Paramo (1955).

Research paper thumbnail of The Fall of Virtuous Men: Mexican Film Noir, and the Crisis of Values in the Postrevolutionary State, 1950-1959

Latin American Research Review, 2023

International reconsideration of Mexican film noir is a recent phenomenon. For decades, Mexican f... more International reconsideration of Mexican film noir is a recent phenomenon. For decades, Mexican film criticism tended to dismiss the importance of this tradition and even to deny its existence, often citing the presence of melodramatic elements in would-be noir films and the lack of a crime novel tradition for screen adaptations. By comparing two Mexican films to similar American productions and examining the local political and economic conditions of the former, this article argues that Mexican film noir had its own pessimistic viewpoints, which were borrowed from journalism and the illustrated press. These viewpoints were based on existing social ailments and delivered relevant criticism of the institutions, classism, and sexual norms of the postrevolutionary Mexican state of the 1940s and 1950s.

Research paper thumbnail of Hacia un Don Juan cosmopolita, Mauricio Garcés y el mito del dandi mexicano moderno

La Nueva Literatura Hispánica, 2022

A través de una variedad de personajes inspirados en el mito clásico de Don Juan, el actor cómico... more A través de una variedad de personajes inspirados en el mito clásico
de Don Juan, el actor cómico mexicano Mauricio Garcés logra establecer una gama de representaciones masculinas que rompen con los rígidos modelos heterosexuales y nacionalistas impuestos por el discurso cinematográfico de la Época de Oro (1933-1955). La inclusión de una sexualidad ambigua que oscila entre el donjuanismo, el dandismo y la homosexualidad, la afirmación de su origen libanés, el uso humorístico de otras lenguas, una serie de referencias a la política internacional, el arte y la literatura universales y a símbolos de consumo global integrados a sus personajes, reflejan muchas de las tensiones y ansiedades que se vivieron en el México de los años 1960. Estas representaciones cómicas abrieron paso a un cuestionamiento pionero, aunque insuficiente, de los roles de género y del prejuicio homofóbico firmemente enraizado en la sociedad mexicana y el cine del medio siglo.

Research paper thumbnail of Dialéctica de la mirada y la voz, Octavio Paz: el poeta junto al fotógrafo

A Contracorriente, 2018

Approaching Paz's reflections regarding the art of photography and the poems used to accompany tw... more Approaching Paz's reflections regarding the art of photography and the poems used to accompany two books of images I analyze in what way Paz's "confidence" on the use of vision as a form of knowledge is contra-posed to his "mistrust" of language and its ultimate instrumentalization in Western Modernity.

Research paper thumbnail of Film Adaption and Transnational Cultures of Production: The Case of Guillermo Arriaga

A Contracorriente, 2017

The circulation of Latin American cinema in a transnational context has widened the options that ... more The circulation of Latin American cinema in a transnational context has widened the options that actors and directors from the region have regarding their involvement in the different aspects of film production. In order to analyze Guillermo Arriaga's transnational career as a writer of novels and screenplays I contrast his work with that of other writers and filmmakers who have participated in both the cinematic and literary fields. The fact that Arriaga has crossed the lines between writing, adapting, and directing his own works in Spanish and English leads me to review the current relationship between film and literature in general. Finally, by comparing Arriaga's novels and films, I propose that the contemporary practice of film adaptation contributes to the "flexibilization" in the roles writers, actors, and directors play in filmmaking and in the circulation of cultural capital between film and literature in the current media markets.

Research paper thumbnail of The Eagle and the Serpent on the Screen: The State as Spectacle in Mexican Cinema

Latin American Research Review, Jan 1, 2010

Recent studies of the history of Mexican cinema continue to speak of the complex relations betwee... more Recent studies of the history of Mexican cinema continue to speak of the complex relations between the state and the fi lm industry, and the most frequently analyzed aspects tend to be the same: the reach and forms of censorship, as well as the fi nancial dependence on the state. To broaden this perspective, I propose a classifi cation of cinematic discourses that represent the relations between fi lm characters and state powers. I discuss four basic modes of representation that, determined by historical and economic circumstances, refl ect and mediate the attitudes and dispositions of viewers toward the political regime. For each mode, I discuss a sequence in a paradigmatic fi lm, analyzing visual and ideological aspects in relation to the political moment at the time of the fi lm's release. Finally, I argue that, despite the resurgence of the Mexican cinema and a more critical tone in its approach to state institutions, fi ctional fi lms still rest on indirect and allegorical representations of recent events. This is due to the uncertainty of the prolonged and still-incomplete transition to institutional democracy in Mexico.

Research paper thumbnail of Cuando el Estado habla en cómic: historieta e historiografía en México

Quaderns de filologia. Estudis de comunicació, Jan 1, 2008

Research paper thumbnail of El coronel no tiene con quien jugar: representaciones latinoamericanas en la literatura y el videojuego

Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies, Jan 1, 2010

Research paper thumbnail of La alta modernidad visual y la intermedialidad de la historieta en México

Hispanic Research Journal, Jan 1, 2007

Después de una breve revisión de la literatura reciente sobre la historieta en México, el artícul... more Después de una breve revisión de la literatura reciente sobre la historieta en México, el artículo propone que a pesar de la tendencia de los críticos a considerar el medio como una forma de extensión del consumismo y la dominación ideológica, las historietas junto con el cine y la pintura mural, establecieron en México la 'alta modernidad visual'. Esta fase reciente de la cultura visual intensifica y amplía las cualidades modernas de la imagen inauguradas en el Renacimiento y facilitadas por la reproducción mecánica desde finales del siglo diecinueve. Sin embargo, los cómics (o historietas) se convierten en un ejemplo paradigmático de la portabilidad y consumo individual (y también masivo) de narrativas visuales que no había sido posible a través de la pintura, la prensa o la fotografía. Un elemento central para este nuevo paradigma es la 'intermedialidad', la posibilidad de que los medios visuales se apropien y reconfiguren imágenes de orígenes diversos. Para ilustrar el despliegue de las prácticas y modos de producción de la Alta Modernidad Visual, se estudian ejemplos de la Época de Oro del cine y de la historieta en México (1935México ( -1955 incluyendo trabajos de artistas gráficos como Zea Salas y Cervantes Bassoco, las figuras de Cantinflas, Tarzán, los murales de Diego Rivera y las películas de Emilio Fernández e Ismael Rodríguez, entre otros.

Research paper thumbnail of From Miss Cristera to the Desert Within: Towards a contemporary war of images in Mexico

Studies in Hispanic Cinemas, Apr 2012

Abstract: With the release of the films Padre Pro/Father Pro (Miguel Rico Tavera, 2007) and Desie... more Abstract: With the release of the films Padre Pro/Father Pro (Miguel Rico Tavera, 2007) and Desierto Adentro/Desert Within (Rodrigo Plá, 2008), and the debates regarding the traditional dress for the Miss Mexico beauty pageant in 2007, the representation of the Cristero Wars has surfaced in Mexican cinema and television as an indicator of the current symbolic struggles for the construction of a new national narrative.

Research paper thumbnail of Tomochic: Nationalist Narrative, Homogenizing Late Nineteenth-Century Discourse and Society in Mexico

Research paper thumbnail of Technologies of the Self and the Body in Octavio Paz's" The Works of the Poet"

Revista hispánica moderna, Jan 1, 2007

Research paper thumbnail of Globalizing Tequila: Mexican Television's Representations of the Neoliberal Reconversion of Land and Labor

Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies, Jan 1, 2007

Research paper thumbnail of El Barzón: performing resistance in contemporary Mexico

Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies, Jan 1, 1998

Research paper thumbnail of A Review of “Cannibalizing the Colony”

Romance Quarterly, Jan 1, 2013

As the author affirms in the introduction, Brazil and Mexico are perhaps the countries with a ric... more As the author affirms in the introduction, Brazil and Mexico are perhaps the countries with a richer legacy regarding the visual representation of colonial literature and colonial culture in the screen. The films chosen as corpus for this study go from a classic early sound feature like Humberto Mauro's Descobrimento do Brasil (1937) to a digital post-cinema production like Caramuru (2002), directed by Guel Arraes.

Research paper thumbnail of Alsino y el cóndor, hacia una crítica del espectador latinoamericano y nicaragüense

Chasqui, 2008

An examination from the perspective of spectatorship theory around Nicaraguan film in general and... more An examination from the perspective of spectatorship theory around Nicaraguan film in general and the film "Alsino y el cóndor" (1981) in particular. I insist on using spectatorial perspectives drawn from Latin American film theory, especially Gutiérrez Alea's proposed analysis of Latin American spectators in a revolutionary situation coming from "Dialéctica del Espectador". The article also gives a brief review of Sandinista and Nicaraguan film policy with focus on film spectatorship.

Research paper thumbnail of Propuestas para un análisis del discurso en Noticias del Imperio de Fernando del Paso

Revista de Literatura Mexicana Contemporánea

Research paper thumbnail of Ideología y juego intertextual en La Campaña de Carlos Fuentes

Research paper thumbnail of No-alienación del yo femenino en Querido Diego te abraza Quiela de Elena Poniatowska

Research paper thumbnail of Consider this: The role of imperatives in scholarly writing

Applied …, Jan 1, 1998

Abstract There have been numerous investigations in recent years into the linguistic and rhetoric... more Abstract There have been numerous investigations in recent years into the linguistic and rhetorical features of research articles, but none, to our knowledge, has examined the 'fringe phenomenon'of imperatives This study investigates the use of imperatives in research articles from ten disciplines Five articles in each field, all five from one journal, were scanned for imperative uses in both main text and notes, and instances were collated and analysed In fields where imperatives were present in the main text (five out of ten), we recorded ...

Research paper thumbnail of "Un análisis sociocrítico de algunas narconarrativas mexicanas."

Como ocurrió en Colombia en los años 80 y 90, el México del siglo XXI se ve amenazado por la pres... more Como ocurrió en Colombia en los años 80 y 90, el México del siglo XXI se ve amenazado por la presencia de numerosas organizaciones delictivas dedicadas al tráfico de drogas ilegales hacia Estados Unidos. El fenómeno del narcotráfico no es nuevo en México, aunque durante los últimos dos decenios la violencia se ha recrudecido a tal grado que si hoy aparece publicado un artículo sobre México en Europa o Estados Unidos, hay una alta probabilidad de que se trate de algún suceso relacionado con las muertes provocadas por la delincuencia organizada.